Students' personal information improperly provided to third party, Eastern Michigan University says

Eastern Michigan University police have discovered that two students who worked for the university improperly provided the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of about 45 students to a third party, EMU vice president of communications Walter Kraft said.

The EMU Department of Public Safety and federal officials are investigating, he said.

DPS became aware of the incident "within the last several weeks" during the course of another investigation, he said.

All the victims have been notified individually, Kraft said.

Kraft would not say in what capacity the two students were employed with the university, but said EMU has "students employed in a variety of areas," and "student employees make a valued contribution at Eastern."

Kraft said the university takes the privacy of its students very seriously, trains student employees of the university about the proper way to handle personal information and requires them to sign agreements regarding confidential information.

"We advised students on how to monitor their credit reports and that's something all students should be doing on a regular basis," Kraft said. "We are working with those 45 students more directly to assist them."

No further details were immediately available.